Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	bring_v	church_n	word_n	2,105	5	4.1959	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51811	A comparison between a sincere penitent and a just person in a sermon before the Queen at Whitehall, March 8, 1692/3 / by Tho. Manningham ...	Manningham, Thomas, 1651?-1722.	1693 (1693)	Wing M492; ESTC R3513	10,364	29

the Gospel of Christ so there are some Vertues or some peculiarities of Holiness in which true Penitents do often excell There is generally an excellent degree of Humility that accompanies all their Pious Duties and nothing usually is more contrary to their Tempers than Spiritual Pride They are seldom guilty of any Censoriousness or despising of others who are not yet return'd to Wisdom and a better Mind who are not yet so Vertuous and so Happy as themselves They are always sensible of what they once were and most zealous for the conversion of others as knowing on what terrible Precipices they continually walk Besides they oftentimes arrive to an exceeding measure of Divine Love that Heat that Vehemency of Temper which once carried them into the Excesses of Sin and Folly being consecrated to God and Religion is for the future turn'd into the Ardors of Devotion If these with many more Advantages of Repentance were well weigh'd there is sufficient encouragement for the greatest Sinners to come in to enter their Names among the happy Penitents and by their timely Conversion to cause great Joy in Heaven But then we are likewise to consider that the Joy which is express'd for a Convert is no Derogation from the just Person who needs no such difficult no such bitter Repentance It is well indeed for thousands of us that there are such privileges in the Gospel for returning Prodigals and that God has so signally declar'd his readiness to forgive us upon our sincere repentance But yet the advantage lies on the other side in being early engag'd in the ways of Vertue A religious Education is certainly the greatest Blessing in this World t is the foundation of all others 't is that which delivers us over to the especial care of God and puts us into the very Road of a happy Predestination which nothing but a prodigious perverseness of Nature can break through But then we must not look upon Religious Education as a thing that can be so soon finish d as some imagine if we would have it effectual it will ask a considerable time in perfecting for it does not consist in saying a Catechism by rote or in standing a little in awe of Parents much less in learning some unnecessary accomplishments but in awakening the faculties and secret powers of the Soul as soon as may be in working of good habits into those powers and making the distinctions between Good and Evil very plain and manifest in enabling young Persons to form a rational choice of Vertue and bringing them by degrees to find a delight in Religious Duties To be sure they must never be trusted to their own Conduct 'till they are arriv'd to some moral Wisdom and to some spiritual Strength and are in some measure prepar'd to withstand those Temptations of the World which are most likely to assault them This some will say is a difficult Task an imployment much out of Fashion and few Parents care to have so much trouble with their Children this I grant is too true but then this is the sourse of those Numbers and Swarms of the extravagantly Vitious which darken this Age that the Supposition of the Parable may be revers'd upon us who have ninety nine Sinners for one just Person who needs no such Repentance Tho' good Education be a difficult Undertaking and much disus'd in these times of general licentiousness yet it is the most important Matter that either the State or the Church can take into consideration for the happiness of the Kingdom as well as the Salvation of Souls depends upon it It may perhaps so happen that after all our care some may get loose from the best Education and run a wild course of folly and madness yet I am perswaded there are but few such and they who do are commonly followed with such quick Reflections and sharp Convictions of Conscience they are so haunted with the remains of their good Education that they find but little quietness in their Souls 'till they return to Wisdom and Vertue and perhaps the first severe Affliction brings them to themselves again So that still the extravagance of most People is owing either to their want of Education or to some great defects in it Either their first Years were wholly neglected and they were suffer'd to contract ill Habits before they were committed to Instruction or they were brought up under such an Indiscreet Strictness and such sowreness of Principles and Opinions as made Religion frightful to them whereas the love of God and the easiness of Vertue are chiefly to be instill'd into tender Minds and that with all the sweetness and endearments imaginable or perhaps their faculties were made too Volatile and Trivial with modish Divertisements and they were taught more Vanity than Vertue in their younger Years or else they were too soon committed to the wide World before they were truly form'd into any settled Goodness or had any Vertuous dispositions improv'd and establish'd in them O 't is a Blessed thing to set out Innocently in the World and to go on in a constant Progress of Holiness To have only Surprizes and Infirmities to repent of and some few Spots contracted in common Conversation to cleanse and wash away And so to increase daily in Wisdom and Vertue and in Favour both with God and Man Tho' the returning Sinner may run up to a great measure of Goodness yet in respect to the just Person he will still be the hinder Wheel and can never overtake him who turns upon another Axle and set out before him in the race of Vertue Tho' the Penitent may have more heats of Zeal and more Vehemency in Religion yet 't is very rarely that he equals the Just in the Regularity and Constancy of Duty The one may sometimes more vigorously collect himself and perform some things in Religion with more generosity and warmth but then he is apt to languish again and to cool too soon but the other maintains his Piety with a calm an even and a gradual advancement The Penitent may be admirably fitted to preach Repentance to others to declare the riches of that Mercy which he himself has found the possibility of overcoming evil habits which himself has laid aside and of recovering into a Life of Vertue after a long course in Sin He may be admirably fitted to warn Men of the deceitfulness of Sin of the falseness of its promises and of the danger of delaying their Amendment But then the remembrance of his former Life will be apt to diminish his Reverence with some and to lessen the Force and Influence of his Counsels But the Just may rebuke and reprove with all Authority and his unspotted Life will add weight and moment to his Words He who has forfeited that free and compleat forgiveness that was dispensed in Baptism and after a notorious range in Sin is brought into the Church again at the penitential Door will have reason to be continually working out his own Salvation with great fear and trembling He will have many scars remaining after his Wounds are heal'd he will hardly ever be free from some Images and Tracts of his former Vanity He will be often in danger of a Relapse He will be apt to think himself more improv'd than really he is because he sensibly finds how much he is remov'd from that Degenerate State in which he was so that a little progress in Vertue will go near to look like perfection to such an one unless he more studiously compare his Life with the rules of the Gospel than with those vicious practices which he has forsaken Besides all this an extravagant Life does seldom fail of leaving some indelible Prints behind it some weaknesses either of Body or of Mind that make the Convert less able to do any eminent service for God and Religion in the remaining part of his Life And upon these accounts he can hardly expect to come to that full Peace and Comfort and to that degree of humble Confidence and Assurance which is the special privilege of the Just Tho' the good Father made an extraordinary Entertainment for the returning Prodigal yet he told the elder Brother that he was ever with him and that all he had was his That he had command of all his Substance and all the Riches of his House were his Those Divine Vouchsafements which are a Feast and a surprizing Joy to the Penitent are but the daily Provisions but the common Experiences of the Just A return from a vicious Life is more moving and causes more admiration but a setled course of Goodness is more valuable and is entertained with a more lasting Esteem Nothing besides Innocence is better than Repentance and a timely Repentance comes very near to Innocence The penitent Person by his return causes a Joy in Heaven but the Just has a great Measure of that Heaven continually within him FINIS